Bad Education
Bad Education is a British sitcom that was produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Three. At the time of the series launch in August 2012 it broke BBC Three's record for the highest-rated first episode of a comedy, which was previously held by Horne & Corden, but is now held by Cuckoo. The second series premiered on BBC iPlayer on 27 August 2013. A week before the television air date of 3 September, as part of BBC Three's plans to premiere all its scripted comedy programmes online. This experiment proved successful, as the first episode of the second series received 1.5 million requests prior to its television airing. A Christmas special aired on 17 December 2013. The third series of Bad Education began transmission on 16 September 2014. Due to its success, the show was later adapted into a movie, which was released on 21 August 2015. In late 2014, Whitehall confirmed that the show would not receive a fourth series. Plot The series focuses on Alfie Wickers (Jack Whitehall), a posh, newly graduated secondary school history teacher at the fictional Abbey Grove School, in Watford9 or Tring,10 Hertfordshire. Ever determined to impress his crush, Rosie Gulliver (Sarah Solemani) Wickers makes repeated efforts to appear "cool", such as coaching the school football team, organising a weapons amnesty and fielding a candidate for the school elections. Usually, in these efforts, he turns to his mismatched class for help, despite them often disapproving of his actions. They are teacher's pet Joe (Lawrence), tough guy Mitchell (Wernham), wheelchair-bound rudeboy Rem Dog (Binstead), inappropriately flirtatious Chantelle (Runeckles), camp Stephen (Williams), the studious Jing (Alexander) and outwardly fiery Cleopatra (Opia). At the same time, Wickers finds himself having to deal with the shenanigans of his eccentric headmaster, Shaquille "Simon" Fraser (Horne) and meet the expectations of a string of deputy heads: at first demanding dictator Isobel Pickwell (Gomez), then the ruthless yet cringeworthy Professor Celia "Pro Green" Green (Spiro), and then his own father, dramatically inappropriate Martin Wickers (Enfield). It is clarified in the final season that the entire show spans a single academic year. Cast * Jack Whitehall as Alfie Wickers * Matthew Horne as Shaquille Fraser * Michelle Gomez as Isobel Pickwell * Sarah Solemani as Rosie Gulliver * Leila Hoffman as Olive Mollinson * Nikki Runeckles as Chantelle Parsons * Kae Alexander as Jing Hua * Ethan Lawrence as Joe Poulter * Charlie Wernham as Mitchell Harper * Jack Binstead as Leslie Remmington * Layton Williams as Stephen Carmichael * Jack Bence as Frank Grayson * Samantha Spiro as Professor Celia Green * Harry Enfield as Martin Wickers * Weruche Opia as Cleopatra Episodes * Main article: List of Bad Education episodes Seasons Film On 27 February 2015, Whitehall confirmed that a feature film edition of Bad Education was in production. Filming took place in Cornwall with the majority of the main cast all reprising their roles for the film. The film is titled The Bad Education Movie and was released on 21 August 2015 in the UK. The film saw ineffectual teacher Alfie Wickers travelling to Cornwall with his students. Entertainment Film Distributors, who also handled the release of the box-office 2011 hit The Inbetweeners Movie dealt with the release of the Bad Education Movie. American Adaptation A pilot for a U.S. adaptation of Bad Education, named An American Education, was ordered by with Whitehall set to reprise his role as Alfie Wickers. The pilot began filming in Los Angeles in January 2014. However, ABC passed on the pilot on 22 May 2014, but Whitehall would continue with the original UK series of the show, until Whitehall started making more episodes of the UK Bad Education. Reception The series received mixed reviews from the British press. The Guardian called it "in poor taste" and accused Whitehall of "phoning it in". The Daily Telegraph gave the show a rating of 2 out of 5, claiming that the show "uses too many stereotypes" and that Whitehall "tends to repeat many jokes" rather than creating new ones. Both the Daily Mirror and The Sun gave the sitcom a rating of 2 out of 5. Despite this, the show currently holds a 7.7 out of 10 rating on IMDb, and a 4.11 rating out of 5 on SideReel from their respective users.1516 Rotten Tomatoes gave 71% to Bad education, a critic said "The script is patchy and the story is too silly for its own good but there are enough laughs to make this a hit with the target audience"17 Trivia